Photos and story by Chet Piotrowski

Charleston went 2-3 in the CHS volleyball invitational, taking fourth place in the gold flight bracket Saturday afternoon.

“I’m super proud of the girls and how they came out and played,” Charleston coach Steve Pamperin said. “All day we played with a lot more consistency. Really proud of a top-four finish.”

Charleston entered the gold flight as the second seed after a a two-set loss to Carbondale. The Trojans took on Effingham, who entered as the third seed. They had played one another two days earlier.

Effingham defeated Charleston on Saturday to advance to the gold flight championship match and Charleston found itself in the third place game facing Carbondale for the second time of the day.

The two teams played equally for the first match before Carbondale edged ahead and won the first set 25-23, and pulling ahead to beat Charleston 25-18 in the second match to take third place.

“For today and the whole season really, we’ve been trying to improve on every set and every point throughout the season,” Pamperin said.  “As long as we were getting better, I was satisfied. These girls took their game up several levels and it showed with a nice finish.”

Effingham defeated Highland in three sets in the gold flight championship, 25-22, 12-25, 25-22.

Charleston’s Makenzie Pamperin was named to the all-tournament as were Effingham’s Lexi Chrappa and Sawyer Althoff.

  • Effingham’s Kennedy Sowell tries to spike the ball between Charleston’s Addison Shrader and Genavieve Braden in the Gold Flight semfinal match of the Charleston Invitational Saturday afternoon. Charleston lost the match 23-25, 22-25 and was seeded into the third place match.
  • Charleston’s Makenzie Pamperin (center) celebrates a point with her teammates.
  • Charleston’s Makenzie Pamperin and Addison Shrader try to block a spike by Carbondale’s Meikayla Graham in the Gold Flight third place game of the Charleston Invitational semifinal match Saturday afternoon. Charleston lost the match 23-25, 18-25 and finished in fourth place.

Here are the final tournament standings:

1) Effingham
2) Highland
3) Carbondale
4) Charleston
5) Champaign Centennial
6) Robinson
7) Meridian
8) East Richland
9) Decatur MacArthur